Monday, March 26, 2007

Jack McConnell

Oh dear, poor Patricia Hewitt. It could happen to anyone I suppose. In an interview with Scottish TV this evening she contrived to get First Minister Jack McConnell's name wrong, not once but twice. He is said to be less than impressed. Never mind Jack, none of us are very impressed with Nanny Hewitt either. Just be grateful she's not in charge of the Scottish NHS...

UPDATE: SNP Angus Robertson tells me: "Jack McConnell is the invisible man of Scottish politics, hiding away from debating with Alex Salmond. And nobody knows who he is at Westminster either. The fact that Labour Ministers in London don’t even know the First Minister’s name makes a mockery of his partnership claims. The reality is that London Labour says jump, and Mr McConnell asks how high."

Game over... except for THIS interview with McConnell where he admits the SNP may win the May election. Not a good day for him really, is it?

22 comments:

Damn it I'm in Scotland and I missed the news tonight as I was working! I assume she called him Joke McConnell, which would mean that most people here would not have noticed she had made a mistake.

I posted a little something on my blog this morning along the same lines. It started out with the news that Broon is to get 'really involved' in the Holyrood elections because he needs to 'save the union'. Let's just hope it doesn't involve telephone boxes and underpants.

Cameron's been up in Scotland arguing that the SNP are neglecting bread and butter issues for this Union business.

That won't impress my relations Binx and Jack and their neighbours way above Inverness. Scotland's oil has given them ample money for bread and butter, what they now want is Independence. If that brings jam, all the better, if not, they'll have their national Pride and unity, freedom and self determination and these are priceless.

They were as shocked by Cameron's talk of 'sour little Englanders' on his previous visit as so many of us in England were. How long before he talked about sour little Scots? Cameron should retract and apologise for that damaging remark.

I wouldn't listen to anything Peter Hitchens says, I have read enough of his diatribes/they would consign the Conservatives to a fourth term in opposition,. The real Hitch forgets you have to be in power before you can do anything. Maggie Thatcher was great, but times have changed, but he hasn't.

Grant Thoms, Why don’t you link your name to your blog, personally I haven’t a clue how to do it but I’m sure someone could help. I found your site after trawling through google; I can see you are anti-Labour (in Scotland presumably) but can’t work out if you are for Scottish independence or for Glaswegian independence from Scotland…!

The sooner that Hewitt unfurls her umbrella and flies away, the better. A spoonful of her sugar most certainly does not help the medicine go down in anything remotely resembling the most delightful way.

I've recently joined the SNP although I am instinctively a Conservative and a Unionist. The reason for this is that it is clear that the UK constitution is defunct. We have a deranged prime minister who does what he pleases, abusing the constitutional settlement of 1689 and the Royal Prerogative, and using various political machinations including whipping, spin and downright lies to advance a self-deluding and deceitful agenda. There are bizarre Parliaments and Assemblies in Edinburgh, Wales and Belfast that are given whatever powers this deranged prime minister sees fit.

The mood in Scotland is volatile. I've just spoken with the local SNP candidate and he says that Labour are in freefall, scrabbling to find candidates in former solid wards. McConnell is indeed a joke, the Lib Dems are discredited because of their partnership with Labour and the Tories are simply not on the radar. The European Union and devolution have changed the independence argument since the 1970s and leading businessmen are happy to support the economic case.

Voting SNP is the only way to shatter the defunct constitutional status quo and to get the argument at the top of the agenda. When one million plus people said "no war" then they should have been heeded - this isn't hindsight talking, I was against the war from the outset (although I was in the Armed Forces and resigned once the fighting was over). We are held in hock by a political party system that seeks to isolate itself further from the public through funding from millionaires and now through general taxation. Simon Jenkins wrote an excellent article in the Sunday Times at the weekend pointing to the fact that Britain has far fewer elected representatives at all levels of government than the rest of Europe and America. We are ruled by a self-perpetuating political and professional class that seeks a mandate once every four or five years and ignores us the rest of the time. This is why I am voting SNP and have joined the party - it is the only way to bring the constitution to the top of the agenda.

As things currently stand I would vote for an independent Scotland (with a heavy heart) although I would would wish the Queen to be Head of State. I also think that an independent Scotland would be tied to England/Wales and Northern Ireland by many treaties and memoranda of understanding covering border, economic, governance and military matters of common interest and that Scotland and England/Wales/NI would not simply be neighbouring members of the European Union.